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The Treasury of Blessings—A Practice of Buddha Shakyamuni
Namo guru śākyamunaye!
In the Samādhirāja Sūtra it says: Those who recollect the
moon-like Buddha while walking, sitting, standing, or sleeping will
always be in the Buddha’s presence and will attain the vast
nirvāṇa. And: His pure body is the color of gold, beautiful is the
Protector of the World. Whoever visualizes him like this practices
the meditation of the bodhisattvas. In keeping with this, we should
practice remembering our incomparable teacher, the Lord of Sages,
in the following way:
Take refuge by reciting three times:
In the Buddha, Dharma, and Supreme Assembly,
I take refuge
until enlightenment is achieved.
May the merit of my generosity
and other virtuous acts
Lead to buddhahood for the benefit of all
beings.
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Then cultivate the four immeasurables by reciting three
times:
May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of
happiness, May they be free from suffering and the causes of
suffering, May they never be apart from the sublime bliss that is
free from suffering, May they remain in a state of equanimity, free
from attachment and aversion to those near and far.
Bring to mind how all phenomena appear yet lack inherent
existence by reciting the following:
Āḥ! As the union of unborn emptiness and the ceaseless
Appearances of interdependence, magically there appears
Before me
in the sky, amidst vast clouds of offerings,
On a jeweled lion
throne of lotus, sun, and moon,
The incomparable teacher, Lion of
the Śākyas.
His body the color of gold, adorned with major and
minor marks.
Clad in the three Dharma robes, he sits in vajra
posture.
His right hand gracefully poised in the earth-touching
mudrā,
And his left hand in the gesture of meditation, holding an
alms-bowl full of nectar.
Like a mountain of gold, magnificent, he
shines with splendor,
Spreading beams of wisdom light across the
whole expanse of space.
The Eight Close Sons, the Sixteen Arhats
and the like—
A vast, ocean-like retinue of noble beings encircles
him all around.
Simply thinking of him, he grants the glory of the
highest bliss:
Liberation from saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, the two
extremes.
He is the Great Being, perfect embodiment of every
source of refuge.
Visualize the form of the Buddha in this way and imagine that he
is in front of you. The instant that you generate this thought—as
the wisdom body of the buddhas is not constrained by limits of time
or location—he will be there. One of the sūtras says: Should anyone
think of the Buddha, he is there, right in front of them,
constantly granting his blessings and freedom from all harm. The
merit gained through visualizing the Buddha is inexhaustible; it is
a source of virtue that will never go to waste. As it says in the
Avataṃsaka Sūtra: By seeing, hearing, or offering to the buddhas, a
boundless store of merit is amassed. Until we are rid of all the
destructive emotions and the suffering of saṃsāra, this compounded
merit will never go to waste. Also, whatever prayers of aspiration
we make before the Buddha will be fulfilled.
As it says in the Teaching on the Qualities of Mañjuśrī’s Pure
Land: Everything is circumstantial and depends entirely on our
aspiration. Whatever prayers of aspiration we make, we will gain
the results accordingly. Generate firm conviction in these
statements and recite the following:
With your great compassion, you embraced this turbulent and
degenerate world,
And made five hundred mighty aspirations.
You
are as exalted as the white lotus; whoever hears your name shall
never return to saṃsāra—
Most compassionate teacher, to you I pay
homage!
All my own and others’ virtues of body, speech, and mind,
together with all our possessions,
Visualized like Samantabhadra’s
offering clouds, I offer to you.
All the harmful actions and
transgressions I have committed throughout beginningless time,
Each and every one I now confess with intense and heartfelt
regret.
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In all virtuous actions, of the noble ones and ordinary beings,
Accumulated throughout the past, present, and future, I rejoice.
Turn the wheel of the profound and vast Dharma,
Ceaselessly and in
every direction, I pray!
Your wisdom body is like space,
And
remains changeless throughout past, present, and future.
Yet in the
perception of those to be guided, you go through the display of
birth and death,
Even so, let your form body continue always to
appear.
Through all my virtues accumulated in the past, present,
and future,
For the sake of benefitting all beings, who are as
infinite as space,
May you, the sovereign of the Dharma, be
forever pleased,
And may all attain the state of the victorious
one, the Lord of Dharma.
Living beings like us, adrift in this
degenerate age, have no guidance and protection.
Because of your
kindness, caring for us with supreme compassion,
Every
manifestation, in this world now, of the Three Jewels,
Is your
enlightened activity.
You are our only incomparable, supreme
refuge,
So from our hearts we pray, with total confidence and
faith:
Do not neglect the great promises you made in times gone
by.
But hold us, until we attain enlightenment, with your
compassion.
With the strongest possible confidence and faith, consider that
the Buddha is there in front of you. Concentrate one-pointedly on
his form. And recite the following three times or as many times as
you can:
Supreme teacher, bhagavan, tathāgata, arhat, complete and
perfect Buddha, glorious conqueror, Śākyamuni Buddha, to you I pay
homage! To you I make offerings! In you I take refuge!
Then invoke his wisdom mind by reciting as many times as you can
the following dhāraṇī taught in the abridged Prajñāpāramitā:
ཏ་dy་a། ཨ'་mu་ནེ་mu་ནེ་མ་ha་mu་ན་ཡེ་sw་ha།
teyata om muné muné
maha munayé soha tadyathā oṃ muni muni mahāmunaye svāhā
Then recite, as many times as possible, the same mantra from oṃ
onwards:
ཨ'་mu་ནེ་mu་ནེ་མ་ha་mu་ན་ཡེ་sw་ha།
om muné muné maha munayé soha
oṃ muni muni mahāmunaye svāhā
During this, bring to mind the Buddha’s qualities and, with a
mind full of devotion, concentrate one-pointedly on the clear
visualization of his form. Then, through the power of uttering the
names of the Buddha and reciting his dhāraṇī, imagine that:
From the Buddha’s body there emanates a great radiance of
multi-colored rays of wisdom light that dispel all our own and
others’ obscurations and cause all the genuine qualities of the
Mahāyāna to arise within us, so that we attain the level of
perfection and never return to saṃsāra.
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Diligently apply yourself to this practice, as much as you can.
In between sessions, practice maṇḍala offering, and recite, to the
best of your ability, whichever sūtras you prefer, such as the
Praises of the Buddha, White Lotus of Compassion, Lalitavistara,
Jātaka Tales, or The One Hundred and Eight Names of the Tathāgatas.
Dedicate your sources of virtue toward unsurpassable awakening and
recite prayers of aspiration. In general, whatever you are doing,
whether it is moving, walking, sleeping, or sitting, you should
constantly remember the Buddha. Even at night, when you go to
sleep, consider that the radiance of the Buddha’s form illuminates
the whole of space in every direction, lighting it up as brightly
as during the day. At all times, emulate the Buddha’s actions from
the moment he first generated bodhicitta, and follow the example of
the buddhas and the great bodhisattvas of the past, present, and
future. Maintaining your commitment to precious bodhicitta, without
ever allowing it to waver, exert yourself as much as possible in
the bodhisattvas’ conduct in general, and in the practices of
śamatha and vipaśyanā in particular, so as to make meaningful the
freedoms and advantages of this human existence. It is said in
several sūtras that merely hearing the name of our teacher, the
Buddha, ensures that one will gradually progress along the path to
great enlightenment without ever falling back. It is also said that
the dhāraṇī revealed above is the source of all the buddhas. It was
through the force of discovering this dhāraṇī that the King of
Śākyas attained enlightenment and that Avalokiteśvara became the
supreme of all the bodhisattvas. Through simply hearing this
dhāraṇī , a vast accumulation of merit will easily be gained and
all karmic obscurations will be purified, and when reciting it,
obstacles will not occur. This has been taught in the abridged
Prajñāpāramitā. Other teachings say that by reciting this dhāraṇī
only once, all the harmful actions you have committed throughout
800,000 kalpas will be purified. They say that it possesses
boundless qualities such as these, and is the sacred heart-essence
of Buddha Śākyamuni. The way to generate faith and exert oneself in
the practices of śamatha and vipaśyanā are explained elsewhere.
The intention to compose this text first arose due to the
persistent encouragement of Ön Orgyen Tenzin Norbu, who is a holder
of the treasury of threefold training, and who accompanied his
request with the offering of auspicious substances. More recently,
the same Ön Rinpoche sent Tulku Jikmé Pema Dechen, with gifts of
gold and other auspicious substances, saying, “Please finish it
quickly.” At the urging of these two great masters, I, Mipham
Jamyang Gyatso, a follower of Śākyamuni, who has unshakeable faith
in the supreme teacher and is a Dharma teacher in name only during
this final age, composed this at Phuntsok Norbüi Ling at the foot
of Mount Dza Dorje Penchuk. It was completed on the eighth day of
the Month of Miracles in the Iron Rat year.
May this benefit the teachings and beings continuously, without
interruption, on a marvelous scale, and may all who see, hear,
think of, or come into contact with it in any way, truly receive
the incomparable blessings of our teacher, the Lord of Sages.
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